A Manufacturing Method like Casting or Additive Manufacturing can be added to create designs tailored for the chosen Manufacturing Method by considering its typical characteristics.
Casting
Draw Directions
Draw Directions need to be added as a vector. At least one is desired or Casting Regions have to be used. There is no maximum limit but more directions will increase the calculation time.
If a Main Draw Direction is set up, a Casting Region for the whole Design Space is set up. This can be standalone or additional to separate defined Casting Regions.
Tapering Angle
Tapering Angle for walls/ribs regarding the Draw Directions. Specified in degree.
Radius
The Radius value influences the behavior of the erosion. Smaller values can create more ribs and cavities in the same area as higher radii.
It also corresponds with the fillet radius of the connection from ribs to other structures.
A default value is defined which depends on the chosen Complexity value.
Minimum Wall Thickness
Minimum thickness of a rib/wall and all other resulting shapes. Specified in world units.
Casting Region
A Casting Region can be added to the Casting Manufacturing Method. A Casting Region defines casting specific settings for separate regions of the Design Space.
If Casting Regions are used, please make sure that all areas of the Design Space are covered. If a Main Draw Direction is also specified, there is automatically one additional region covering the whole Design Space.
Hints
More Draw Directions extend the calculation time.
Big Radius values will extend the calculation time. Too small radii can cause issues during the material erosion.
Additive Manufacturing
Build Plane
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Given are the maximum allowable stress of the material with 100 MPa and the Safety Factor with a value of 5. With a scaled target stress in build direction of 80% we receive the following values considered in the optimization:
Target Stress (In-Plane directions) | 20 MPa |
Scale Target Stress in build direction | 0.8 |
Target Stress in build direction | 16 MPa |
Support Reduction
The Support Redcution function is not available in this add-in version. The function will return shortly redesigned and improved.
The Support Reduction function reduces the needed support structure for the optimized part in regard to the Build Plane. The target is to reduce the amount of needed support for overhang angles of 45° while maintaining nearly the same mechanical performance as designs without manufacturing constraints.
Strategy
Three different strategies are available:
PassiveReactiveActive
The influence of the Support Reduction on the design increases from Passive to Reactive to Active.
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This comparison shows the influence of the three different Support Reduction strategies regarding the resulting mass, the maximum deflection and the needed support volume compared to a base design without any support strategy.
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Intensity
For the strategies Reactive and Active a second value can be defined, the Intensity. The Intensity can be set between 1 and 10, where 1 is very low and 10 is very high. Take in mind that a very high Intensity could lead to a slower performance and unusual results.
Hints
If a Build Plane is added, this Build Plane will act as the Working Coordinate System for the optimization. Symmetry can only be used with reference to the Build Plane and therefore the defined Working Coordinate System.
It is recommended to start with the firstSupport Reductionstrategy (Passive) and use the other two together with theIntensityif the results are not satisfying.Use theShape QualityFine Tuneto get better results and get rid of artifacts that can occur during theSupport Reduction.